A patient whose heart stopped more than 40 times in one hour after triple heart bypass surgery came around singing folk songs when he regained consciousness.

Bekir Demirtas, 66, was rushed into surgery after he went to hospital complaining of chest pains in the city of Erzincan in north-eastern Turkey.

Doctors at the Erzincan Mengucek Gazi Research and Training Hospital found that three of his main arteries were 90 per cent blocked.

The pensioner was immediately rushed into surgery for a four-hour operation and then transferred to intensive care after it was completed successfully.

The pensioner's heart stopped more than 40 times in one hour (Photo: CEN)

He seemed to be recovering well until his heart suddenly stopped beating. Doctors performed heart massage therapy to bring him back.

But then they realised there was a recurring problem which caused his heart to stop beating 40 times in an hour.

Doctors opened up his chest again and massaged his heart by hand before taking him back into surgery for a second operation to have a heart pump fitted to keep it beating.

Bekir Demirtas was referred for a triple heart bypass (Photo: CEN)

This time, when Mr Demirtas came around he said he felt as fit as a fiddle, thanked doctors and nurses and sang them a folk song in the intensive care unit.

He said: "Previously my heart would ache, I would have shortness of breath. Now I have no such a problem. I could wrestle and fight, and even dance."

Dr Oruc Alper Onk, who led the surgical team, said he had never seen a case like it in more than 500 operations.

Amazingly, Bekir woke up singing (Photo: CEN)

He said: "We opened the chest at the intensive care unit because we were afraid he wouldn't make it into surgery.

"His heart stopped more than 40 times. We did electroshock to the heart, in the meantime we realised that the drainage was pressing on the heart and was causing bleeding, we removed it and cleaned the blood around the heart.

"The heart stopped and worked again in short periods of 20 to 30 seconds. We took the heart in our hands and continued massaging it, then we took our patient for a second operation."